Obama heads to Mitch McConnell country

President Obama journeys Thursday to the home base of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell -- Louisville, Kentucky -- to protest the GOP approach to the federal budget.

In remarks at a Louisville technology company, Obama is expected to criticize Republican plans to repeal the estate tax and to argue that the proposed GOP budget would require major cuts to job training programs.

"There's nothing ideological about job-training programs that benefit workers and employers," White House press secretary Josh Earnest told the Louisville Courier-Journal. "This is the kind of common-sense thing that we should be able to get together on."

As for the estate tax, congressional Republicans call it a "death tax" that unfairly burdens farmers and small business owners. Obama and aides say the estate tax affects very few, very wealthy people.

McConnell built his political career in Louisville, serving as the chief executive of Jefferson County before his election to the U.S. Senate in 1984. There is now a McConnell Center at the University of Louisville.

McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said the Republican plan will balance the federal budget without cutting essential job training programs. He added that the Obama administration has made cuts to accommodate budget caps they agreed to.

"The president signed the budget caps into law, and rather than finding smart ways to trim the fat in Washington to meet that pledge, he has apparently decided he would cut jobs-training programs to maintain the caps," Stewart said. "But just to be clear, the job-training cuts he would make to help reduce the deficit do not appear anywhere in the Republican-passed balanced budget."